How to Deal With Stupid Judges
by StormyBabe1988
Summary: One shot about Harry's second task. Dunno yet if I'll do anything else with it but I hope you enjoy my drabble all the same. Let me know what you think I should do with it.


How to Deal with Stupid Judges

"Mr. Potter, are you aware that you rescued the wrong hostage?" Dumbledore was trying to keep up his grandfatherly act but he was getting a bit aggravated, was this boy an idiot? Had he finally cracked under the pressure? It was rather obvious the Weasley boy was meant to be his hostage and Miss Granger was the Durmstrang champion's hostage. Karkaroff was smirking behind Dumbledore's back at the idiocy of his "Golden Boy".

"No professor, I think you have it backwards. You put the wrong hostage in the lake. The mer-song in the egg clearly said they would take what I would sorely miss, at the end of an hour it would be gone and it wouldn't be back. Ron _is_ my best mate, but Hermione's the one I couldn't live without." Harry said it as if it should be obvious and Dumbledore was getting agitated at his attitude.

"Please explain your reasoning Monsieur Potter." Madame Maxine requested. She was beginning to wonder if Dumbledore was as great as he claimed if he didn't even know who his student would miss most in the world.

"Hermione became my best friend in first year when Ron and I rescued her from a troll at Halloween. Later that year the three of us rescued the sorcerer's stone from professor Quirrel who was being possessed by Voldemort. Hermione noticed the trap door below the three headed dog, put the clues together to deduce it was the sorcerer's stone being guarded, got us past the Devil's snare and figured out a logic question to get me through to face Quirlemort. Ron got us past a giant chessboard and was knocked out in the process. In second year we had a bad case of petrified students and bloody walls. Hermione was petrified on her way to warn everyone that it was a basilisk doing the petrifying and saved a girl's life on the way by warning her to look around corners with a mirror. Thankfully she tore the page out of the book she was reading or I never would have known. She wrote pipes on the page which gave me the idea to look for the girl who died in a bathroom and never left. On the way Ron and I found out Lockhart was a fraud and he tried to obliviate us with Ron's wand, it backfired and caused a cave in. I went to face the basilisk and a memory of Voldemort that was trying to kill Ginny, Fawkes helped and I slaid the beast. Third year was mild in comparison, I just had a crazed madman after me then, Ron thought Hermione's cat ate his pet rat Scabbers and wasn't talking to her. I tried not to take sides but I spent a lot of time with Hermione that year. This year he called me a liar and a cheat when my name came out of the Goblet and even after evidence to the contrary came forward he wouldn't speak to me until after I faced that bloody dragon. Hermione has helped me keep my head, kept me from falling behind in class and helped find ways to keep me from dying in this stupid contest. Ron's great for talking quidditch and girls, but Hermione's my number one in everything else." Harry explained it carefully and looked around to see many nodding heads.

"In zat case, you are correct, eet was our mistake." Madame Maxine declared with a sigh and looked around at her fellow judges.

"Well then, Harry Potter was the first in the mer-village, he made excellent use of gillyweed and returned with who he deemed to be his proper hostage before anyone else and well within the time limit. According to the rules that automatically earns him full marks, am I right Barty?" Bagman smiled widely and bounced in his seat like an excited child. He had been worried the boy might be an idiot when he returned with the wrong hostage and was greatly relieved his bet was still safe.

"Yes, Bagman is correct, the boy earned full marks according to the rules." Crouch was exasperated. Why did they always ask him? Couldn't they just read the bloody rule book?

Madame Maxine pouted a bit but only because it put her own champion so far behind in points. Karkaroff tried to complain of course but was very quickly silenced and spent his time scowling at everyone in the vicinity.

"Well Mr. Potter, it seems you are now in first place, Diggory is in second, Krum third and Delacour fourth. Good luck to you all in the final task." Bagman said smiling even more widely.


End file.
